[Halifax Hillbilly]

Convention centre proposed for old Herald properties
Project includes luxury hotel, office towers; will be triple the capacity of current trade centre

By JENNIFER STEWART Staff Reporter
Thu. Jan 29 - 5:34 AM

Out with the old and in with the new, as they say.

The old Chronicle Herald building on Argyle Street and its neighbour, the Midtown Tavern on Grafton Street, will soon make way for Halifax’s new convention centre, CTV News reported Wednesday night.

The convention centre project, expected to be announced in the next week or so, will also feature a 17-storey luxury hotel on the block facing Argyle Street and a 13-storey glass office tower on the site of the popular eatery and adjacent parking lot.

Seating capacity in the new convention centre is expected to be in the 2,500 range, roughly three times the capacity of the current World Trade and Convention Centre, also on Argyle Street.

CTV reported that municipal and provincial politicians, as well as the developer, Argyle Developments Inc., declined to comment on the proposed project.

Indeed, Mayor Peter Kelly, contacted later Wednesday night, was tight-lipped on any proposals, pointing out that the expression of interest process is not yet finished.

"No final decisions have been made yet," he said.

Once that process wraps up, he said, the province will make a formal announcement.

Fred MacGillivray, outgoing CEO of the current convention centre, confirmed that the more than 25-year-old facility is too small for many of the conventions that come to Halifax.

"We are turning away business now that we were getting for many years that have outgrown us," he told CTV.

Joe Ramia of Argyle Developments could not be reached for comment Wednesday night.

But in an interview last summer, he told The Chronicle Herald that a new convention centre was one of three possible scenarios for the prime property, one of the largest single pieces of real estate in the downtown core.

Argyle Developments bought the Chronicle Herald property in 2007 from the estate of the late cable TV mogul Charles Keating, which had listed it for $15 million. Mr. Keating purchased the property from the Dennis family, owners of The Halifax Herald Ltd., in 2002.

Last July, Mr. Ramia also bought the nearby Midtown property for $1.5 million after the children of the pub’s former owner, Doug Grant, were involved in a court battle.